Why tonight's super full 'snow moon' will be the brightest this year

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A full moon being hailed as a “super snow moon” is sure to get spectators howling when it hovers in the sky Monday night into Tuesday morning — because it will be the biggest and brightest of the year.

The sky-gazing spectacle — the biggest event since last month’s “super blood wolf moon eclipse” — will feature a supermoon, meaning the moon is both full and at its perigee, the point in its orbit where it’s closest to the Earth, Space.com reported. The event will officially occur in the morning, but when the moon crosses the night sky, it will be brighter than at any point of the year, or even until 2026, according to Forbes.

The moon will be 221,734 miles from Earth, around 17,000 miles closer than average. And, because 100 percent of the moon’s surface will be illuminated by the sun, it will appear 30 percent brighter and 14 percent larger than normal, according to the site.

The term “snow moon” has historically been given to the second full moon of the winter, when more snowfall is recorded, by some Native American tribes, according to NASA.

The moon will appear even bigger at the horizon, but don’t be fooled by the optical illusion.

“The moon isn’t actually bigger, it just looks like it,” Dean Regas, an astronomer for the Cincinnati Observatory, told USA Today.

“This perceived increase in size happens whenever you see the moon, regardless of its phase, near the horizon.”

The snow moon follows last month’s super blood moon, making it the second supermoon of 2019.

For those who can’t catch Tuesday’s supermoon, a third supermoon of the year, nicknamed the worm moon, can be seen on March 21. The worm moon will occur just hours after the vernal equinox, which marks the first day of spring.

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